Dave 1 and Pee Thug are naked '80s enthusiasts, to such an extent that they're not afraid to extol the virtues of New Edition or Huey Lewis & The News. The Montreal duo probably now have more friends than either Bobby Brown or Huey, since their thick synths and bouncy rhythms hitched a ride on Bloc Party's last tour. It is strange to imagine a pair exhibiting Electric Six or even Darkness-esque abandon accompanying some worthy shoegazers on tour. Therein lies the difference: the ironic image that Chromeo have cultivated is tempered by some beautifully bouncy electrofunk that is unashamedly danceable. We should caveat that by saying that there's also copious use of the talk box, just in case any of you groovers were getting too serious. Throw in a lot of rhymes about girls and a deal with hipper-than-thou Vice Records and you've got a great excuse to dress and body rock like one of MC Hammer's homeboys. Luckily these hommes d'esprit keep better company than that: Dave's early work caught the attention of Tiga at a Montreal record store and is the older brother of turntable genius and Kanye West protege A-Trak. Are all Canadian musicians related?

NB: after-show party by Dazed & Confused magazine at Madame JoJo's (8-10 Brewer St., W1). DJ sets from Chromeo, Sweat X, DJ Jaclyn, Tapedeck, Zombie Disco Squad and Patchwork Pirates.

Paul Chan is as well known for his creative political activism as his fine artworks. In 2002 he went to Baghdad with Nobel Peace Prize nominated group Voices In The Wilderness and made the video essay Baghdad In No Particular Order, an all-singing, dancing, footnoted rebuttal of the false logic that led to the 2003 invasion. He is a one man example of how art can interpret politics, and politics determine art. But how does the dynamic work? In this ancillary to his Serpentine exhibition, artists, political commentators and writers come together to discuss this relationship in depth. Other speakers include Gustav Metzger, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Melanie Gilligan, Yates McKee, gallerist and NYC's New Museum curator Massimiliano Gioni, and Milan Rai, co-editor of Peace News and a founder of Justice Not Vengeance. Bound to be fascinating.

NB: Paul Chan's exhibition is on view at the Serpentine till 01/07.

It is the whimsical quality of British artist Hannah Starkey's photographs, collected by the likes of the Saatchi Gallery and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, which engages the viewer. The women acting out her filmic scenes appear caught between specific points in time: as if we have been given a privileged frozen glimpse of their inner selves. While Starkey's '90s photographic series of everyday female folk in the city set up an experiential dynamic that often worked against social and gender stereotyping, recent images rely more heavily on the stylisation of particular urban and domestic settings to characterise who these women are and help us to identify the precursive and resulting actions that might have led to and from their static situations. Dr Lucy Soutter, Senior Lecturer in Photography at The London College Of Communication, and an artist, art historian and critic, will be talking to the artist about her work to date and new mid-career Steidl-produced monograph Hannah Starkey Photographs 1997-2007 (to be published in September).

A pairing of a debut director and a veteran actress, Les petites vacances (Stolen Holidays) is a subtle and somewhat unsettling narrative with a brilliant central performance. The film centres on Bernadette Lafont, the Grande Dame of French cinema whose 50-year career began during the French New Wave -- working with virtually all of the Nouvelle Vague directors -- and has continued to her present total of 150 films. Best known here for her work with director Claude Chabrol (Les bonnes femmes, Le beau Serge) and for her role in the cult La maman et la putain, Lafont plays Danielle, a mild mannered granny who is travelling with her two grandchildren -- newly bolshy adolescent Marine and the younger shy Thomas -- to deliver them to their divorced dad's home for Easter. When he is delayed on a business trip, she stays on to take them on an impromptu outing, which soon morphs from an adventure to a slightly more disturbing full-blown roadtrip. Paralleling Marine's growing independence with her own rebellion against a lifetime of "doing the right thing", Danielle gradually unravels towards the film's enigmatic conclusion.

NB: Les petites vacances is released in London on 29/06. Other films of note released on the same day are Paris, je t'aime, Les Dixie Chicks: Shut Up And Sing, Golden Door and Sketches Of Gehry.

In, out, shake it all about -- around the Southbank that is; if you're a bookish type on the hunt for some hot summer action. For there are a multitude of indoor and outdoor events happening at this inaugural literature festival hosted by the brand spanking new Southbank Centre. These are our picks: Toby Litt in conversation with authors Steven Hall and Scarlett Thomas -- the celebrated purveyors of gender fluidity in fiction (02/07); Pat Barker's launch of Life Class, her brilliant new book dealing with tensions, both sexual and political, between young artists at the Slade just as England teeters on the brink of war (02/07); the musical celebration of WH Auden's centenary (03/07); biting satirist Martin Rowson unveiling a seriously gigantic cartoon (03/07); Mark Thomas, AL Kennedy and Armando Iannucci debating whether comedy is the last refuge for taboos (06/07); and Tahmina Anam (whose fantastic book A Golden Age was published earlier this year) and Kamila Shamsie discussing the importance of fictionalising history (07/07). Quite frankly these highlights don't even really scratch the surface. Check out the line-up because there is literally something for every taste -- if you are a literary luvvie or not, the debates, performances, readings and discussions are well worth investigating.

NB: the London Literature Festival runs from 29/06 till 12/06. Literary flashers take note of both the Queen Elizabeth Hall's Wole Soyinka lecture (07/07 at 7:30pm) and the London Review Bookshop's event with Doris Lessing, Virginia Ironside, Brian Aldiss and Christopher Priest that celebrates the work of Anna Kavan (03/07 at 7pm).

Signal to Noise is definitely a company to watch out for. Created seven years ago, it has established itself firmly on the British stage. Longwave, directed by Chris Goode, combines elements of traditional and experimental performance with great theatrical effect. How many words are required to tell a beautiful story of life, friendship, desire and human existence? Apparently just a few or hardly any as is proven by Signal to Noise in their new production. Longwave is a charming, surreal masterpiece. Its magical visual narrative focuses on the day-to-day existence of two scientists isolated in a cabin somewhere far away that resembles a mix of science-fiction post-atomic world and the bizarre setting of Delicatessen. The characters, brilliantly acted by Tom Lyall and Jamie Wood, co-exist within their claustrophobic world and their everyday routine grows into an enchanted visual pattern. The show is an extremely clever and heartfelt example of devised theatre. It is a great delight to see something so innovative and unspoiled by dialogue. Book now -- a limited run.

NB: runs till 30/06.

There's a kind of unsaid code amongst the most iconic figures of a recurring '60s idealism that says "it's better to burn out than fade away". Yet perhaps some of the more persistent artists of that or any era refuse to do just that, symbolically reducing the later generation who take up their philosophy to a strange quandary; to renounce everything or carry on bearing the flag? Kurt Cobain would have us believe it was a life or death situation; most of the more recent generation are simply happy to play around with the references and live it up, paying tribute to their inspirations and liberally splashing the paint around until something interesting appears. Polar Bear do just that, taking in everything from Coltrane to Hendrix via electronica and creating an effervescent brew that goes a long way to inducing the required level of intoxication beyond which point other things cease to matter. Oh and by the way, "if you're thinking Trost is limited to punk-rock-noise-avant-garde, her album will give you something to think about, oh yes".

NB: you can also catch Polar Bear on 13/07 when they play the Spitz.

The past few years have witnessed the breakthrough of several Dutch artists in electronic music, dismissing the notion that ear bleeding gabba is all the Dutch like to dance to. From the chart worrying antics of Fedde le Grand to the more techno orientated Joris Voorn, it's beginning to look like artists from Holland will be dictating trends in dance music. So it's very nice that Dutch promoter Satellite 31 has decided to showcase the best musical talent Holland has to offer. After a successful launch party in Berlin, it takes over Egg and its Funktion One sound system for the first of a new bi-monthly residency. Room one offers up the best of Dutch techno with Voorn returning to London after his recent live performance at Fabric, and he is joined by Steve Rachmad, responsible for mixing the recent Satellite 31 cover CD for DJ Magazine, and a live performance from minimal techno artists Polder. Room two is more on an electro tip, with the limelight thrown squarely on Mason, whose 2006 release "Exceeder" was a crossover hit, with big support from Tiga and John Dahlback. As well as DJing, Mason will be joined by Coen Berrier for a first ever UK live performance as Mason & The Maker. DJ support comes from rising talent Terry Toner and Generik.

In the wake of Antony Gormley's magnificent additions to the London skyline, and one of the largest public art commissions the city has seen, the Southbank Centre is hosting a symposium to reflect on and probe the impact of Gormley's work on its public urban forum, the city. As some are finding merit in his roof surfing figures, the heavyweights of the discipline will be asking how the work resonates meaning with the city as a theoretical and representational concept, seeking out a new language for the "urban". As the roof-top Gormleys go about undoing the monolithic architecture and spectacle landmarks that line the Southbank, replacing it with something more subtle, there is a creeping awareness of something shifting. The symposium will address how to imagine and represent something as nebulous as the city, a timely debate hot on the heels of last year's Venice Architecture Biennale, where architecture found its social conscience. The panel includes Gormley, celebrated architect Zaha Hadid, writer and scholar Anthony Vidler, Arup's Peter Head, Mark Cousins from the AA and Richard Sennett of London School of Economics.

NB: Antony Gormley's Blind Light exhibition runs at The Hayward till 19/08. For Zaha Hadid fans make sure you catch her new exhibition at the Design Museum which opens this week on 29/06.

The last Saturday of June will be commemorated by an airshow in north London, but don't expect fighter jets to fly in tidy formations. Indeed, this is an artist's airshow and it takes place at the old munitions testing ground of the Royal Gunpowder Mills, now known as the Gunpowder Park. Crashes and missiles come to mind but, rest assured, this is the second instalment of the ambitious Arts Catalyst winged event. Ben Blakeborough will present a real one-person flying craft, Ruth MacLennan will document crowds from a bird's eye view, Anne Bean and artists will do their best to eclipse the sunset. For the people who wish to anchor the airy creative ethers with a bit of reflection, there will be a symposium promisingly entitled The Aesthetics of Impossibility featuring the above artists as well as Simon Faithfull, known for his accomplished drawing practice and his extensive use of technology; Janette Paris, specialist of the impossible; and Usman Haque, who devised an aerial sculpture. So far, there is no Icarus performance in the programme but it certainly is no great leap of faith to think that this will certainly constitute a brilliant day in the park.

NB: the admission price includes bus transfer from central London (if required) and supper and refreshments on-site. You must register via airshow@artscatalyst.org or by calling 020.7375.3690.

It's 30 years since The Damned's debut unleashed ragged riffs and pie-throwing on an unready public. Unbeknown to them, the uncouth Brits were fostering a generation of dance DJs, including DJ Hell, whose genre-exploding 1992 classic "My Definition Of House Music" left proverbial pie on the faces of traditional house and techno performers. Similar to The Damned, Hell is probably better known not for his own releases, but for his popularisation of a genre, in his case electroclash. The Munich sound had a burst of uber-hype that was almost as shortlived as once-were-masters Fischerspooner but Hell's influence has been sustained by his International Deejay Gigolos Records stable's work with Miss Kittin, Dave Clarke, Jeff Mills and recently The Presets. Hell scored himself a coup by signing the pair at the epicentre of the Modular invasion, although their whole bandwagon owes him for making their home label's '80s revivalism fashionable. Mijk van Dijk (appearing before Hell) has also been on the German house scene to make the newest electro grandees look like young turks. Another graduate of the electroclash moment is former Parisian record store assistant Ivan Smagghe, who'll be battling for attention in Fabric's Room 1 along with Sascha Funke and Kiki, both from the fashionable Berlin collective bpitch control. A night to get into the roots of electro house.

NB: in the spirit of electroclash's artisan leanings, DJ Hell's International Deejay Gigolo Records presents an exhibition of the label's album covers to mark its 10 year anniversary at Art Vinyl, 20 Broadway Market, Hackney E8 (30/06 till 13/07).

It's another night of cross cultural contamination this weekend as Heavy Industries host a night at Corsica Studios that pits four to the floor techno against the low slung rhythms of dubstep. In the blue corner, we have the likes of Copenhagen's secretive Ink & Needle, Craig Torrance and Heavy Industries' own James Mowbray; in the red corner, Kiss FM's Hatcha and Benga, Planet Mu's MRK1 and Virus Syndicate. Whilst dubstep DJs have been a regular fixture at electronica nights the last couple of years, it's nice to see its slightly more conservative cousin finally embracing the young upstart. As venues go, Corsica Studios, with its no nonsense, back to basics feel, makes for a great party and, with a Funktion-One soundsystem installed, any techno heads who have yet to experience the bone rattling sound of dubstep should be in for an eye opener.

NB email heavyindustries@jamesmowbray.com for free entry before midnight and half price after.

At first glance Sam Basu's sculptures give the impression of a classic Star Trek film set. In fact, given his outlandish dress at his PV, one could even think that Basuhaus was an attempt to reach that final frontier. In the past he has created crystalline structures and strange cardboard worlds, as well as some incredibly amusing videos, but these strange objects are his most fully realised sculptural statement to date. They look like less squirmy versions of things to be found in the Cronenberg landscape, but in reality our world itself seem to be rapidly descending into a strange new unimaginable sci-fi future. Is this Fred Flintstone meets Aliens? Cardboard, twine and oil paint meet aluminium and florescent lights. Basu's otherworldly objects hint at functionality, but ultimately argue for a different, tribal form of aesthetics. In the end, we really just have to describe the experience as "a stroll around Basuland".

NB: runs till 01/07.

Paris, it does something to you. Gets under your skin; enters your veins; kisses your cheek; shakes, surprises and shocks you; appals on occasion, even; makes you cry; makes you laugh and makes you fall in love, with both it and whoever you are with. Such a collage of emotions and passions is this film. It's a love letter to Paris, sent by various directors (the Coen Brothers, Alexander Payne, Gus Van Sant, Walter Salles, Tom Tykwer -- to name a few) who have each composed a short film set in a different arrondissement. Some are poignantly touching (Gurinder Chadha's story of a burgeoning romance between a boy and the young Muslim girl who is being racially jeered at by the boy's friends), some quirky and funny (Steve Buscemi as an American tourist who makes a fatal faux pas on the metro), some quietly moving (Natalie Portman's troubling phone call with her blind boyfriend) and some downright weird (Elijah Wood's encounter with a vampire), but as a collection they work (even including the slightly dodgy ones, ahem, Wes Craven). It's star studded indeed, but no star quite eclipses the glittering allure of the city itself. This is an interesting, creative flight of fancy that's worth losing your heart to for a few hours.

NB: Paris, je t'aime is released in London on 29/06. Other films of note released on the same day are Les petites vacances, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up And Sing, Golden Door and Sketches Of Gehry.

The closing shot of Sicilian director Emanuele Crialese's marvellous film Golden Door (Nuovomondo) sees Charlotte Gainsbourg and her quite exceptional co stars -- the New York based artist and sculptor Vincenzo Amato and Francesco Cassia -- floating in a sea of milk looking as pleased as punch. And, as the camera pans out we see that they are not alone. In fact there are hundreds of them. A deliciously surreal metaphor for a film that recounts the epic tale of just one Sicilian family who, in 1900, having been shown photos of the USA with chickens the size of Pandas, onions bigger than Spacehoppers and gold actually growing on trees, leave their thoroughly unsophisticated peasant homeland and travel to New York in search of milk and honey. Hardly the Queen Mary, their conveyance is a converted cargo ship packed to the rafters with hundreds of filthy yet eminently hopeful immigrants who, having survived the passage, then suffer the indignity of rigorous entrance interviews and examinations both physical and mental. Beautifully shot, meticulously costumed and incredibly art directed, this film looks at yet another immoral episode in American history that was previously whitewashed, and which tallies perfectly with the ethics and opinions of today's Bush administration. We love this film.

NB: Golden Door is released in London on 29/06. Other films of note released on the same day are Les petites vacances, Paris, je t'aime, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up And Sing and Sketches Of Gehry.

The massively successful country and western trio the Dixie Chicks were on their Top Of The World Tour, in 2003, when lead singer Natalie Maines confided in a packed house at the Shepherds Bush Empire: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas." Maines made this comment on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq and consequently turned the band into public enemy no 1 in the eyes of millions of American patriots. Radio stations boycotted their records, former fans protested angrily outside their concerts and made public displays of trashing their albums. A male commentator on prime time news went so far as to refer to the Dixie Chicks as "callow, foolish women who deserved to be slapped around". Maines even received death threats. As well as getting up close and personal with the Dixie Chicks as they struggle to just live their lives and make music, in the wake of Maines having the temerity to express anti-Bush sentiments, this fine documentary shows that politics and (show)business simply don't mix and that it's questionable just how "free" free speech really is in the good ol' US of A.

NB: Dixie Chicks: Shut Up And Sing is released in London on 29/06. Other films of note released on the same day are Paris, je t'aime, Les petites vacances, Golden Door and Sketches Of Gehry.

White Noise is a series of eight photographs by Dan Holdsworth, depicting landscapes dominated by the signs and imprints of humanity, seven of which are on display at STORE. A snow-capped mountainside at night-time is captured as if lit by stage lights, the snow itself not there by nature, rather artificially scattered by snow machines. Ski resorts reappear throughout the series as examples of nature subsumed and spat out for man's pleasure, although man's presence within the landscape is not always represented as ugly: a half-built motorway viaduct stands like a monument in the hillside, a contemporary version of Stonehenge, and a grid of electricity pylons and cables is shot against a bleak snowy plain, the criss-crossing lines appearing like drawing on a piece of white paper. The title of the series really draws your attention to the subject of the photographs: technology as the sign of man's conquering of the earth. Man has long struggled to control nature and his ultimate inability to do so has often been explored by artists (think Turner strapping himself to masts of ships and setting sail). Here it seems that technology and industry may have finally won, but to the detriment of man.

NB: runs till 07/07.

The Southbank Centre presents a rare opportunity to see the great Wole Soyinka speak on the theme of citizenship. Soyinka is a both magisterial and modest figure, who is awe-inspiring for many reasons: his mastery of a wide literary range from the absurd to the political; his considerable output; his Nobel Prize for literature; and his ability to relate his ideas to the mythology of the Yoruba people and still make them germane to readers world-wide. Not only this, but he knows the meaning of suffering for freedom of speech, having been imprisoned in Nigeria on more than one occasion for his publications. There is scant similarity between Soyinka and Salman Rushdie, but amid the hair tearing and general kerfuffle of recent weeks, Soyinka should allow us to see the latter in a new light. Soyinka proves both the power and the importance of mixing literature with politics, and is likely to raise the quality of the debate on citizenship above bickering on the relative merits of British- and Englishness.

NB: literary flashers take note of both the Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival (runs from 29/06 till 12/07) and the London Review Bookshop's event with Doris Lessing, Virginia Ironside, Brian Aldiss and Christopher Priest that celebrates the work of Anna Kavan (03/07 at 7pm).

Paul Morrison's giant monochrome wall paintings have transformed a corner of Bloomberg's HQ into something more closely resembling a medieval museum or theatre set -- a mean feat considering the physical limitations of this imposingly corporate architectural entity. The antique floral bursts, fairytale urban, woodland and agricultural scenes adorning the walls might have unfurled from giant paper sheets, for there is little evidence of them having been "made". In fact, the scale of the imagery and spatial dynamics of the site make it hard to believe these are paintings at all. Morrison collages the designs for his frescoes from a wealth of disparate sources such as botanical textbooks, cartoons and a database of Internet imagery, though the presiding aesthetic has to be 16th-century woodcuts. On a black wall, a massive, manipulated floral growth in a white circle appears scientifically arranged as if viewed through the lens of a microscope, while alluding to the natural world's pictorial alliance with the world of design. In the process of losing the chronology and context for his data Morrison is afforded a view from which to exploit our preconceptions of the uncanny and create images of a borrowed but curiously contemporary past.

NB: runs till 14/07.

It is always a great treat to see new work at the National Theatre. There is nothing more exiting then witnessing a world premiere of a new young voice. The Five Wives Of Maurice Pinder is a NT stage debut by Matt Charman. Ti Green's fine design leads the eye into a perfectly ordinary middle class Lewisham house. But is Charman's new play just another middle class domestic drama? Maurice Pinder is an average, white bloke. He runs a scaffolding company, owns a house, has two sons... and five wives. The idea is refreshing and the play does not try to judge the concept of polygamy. It questions our perception of relationship, family life and our expectations. And are we really all monogamous, anyway... However, things don't go as smoothly as they could with the appearance of Irene, wife number five, and a young council clerk, who falls in love with Fay, wife number two. The cast is amazing and we get great performances from all of them. Clare Holman as Fay is just astonishing and young Adam Gillen gives a five star professional stage debut as the teenage son Vincent. Even though the play itself may have some faults, it definitely makes for an entertaining and gripping evening.

NB: runs till 27/08.

Nothing Much: A Best Of Minus, the new two-CD release from Richie Hawtin's Minus label, is a retrospective split between an 11-track selection of their choicest output and a 25-track mix by Minus cohort Troy Pierce. The title itself displays a tongue in cheek reverie not commonly associated with minimal techno and its legion of trainspotter fans. The content of Nothing Much, the first disc, focuses on the past three years, with several of the label's heavy hitters present. Mathew Jonson's B movie bass monster "Decompression" may be one of the oldest tracks, having been released in 2004, but it still sounds fresh in today's age of throwaway trends. Current producer/remixer du jour Matthew Dear surfaces with his False alias, providing the brilliant "Fed On Youth" which is little more than the sound of a siren warming up, the pitter patter of drums and some impressive sub bass. A similar sound ricochets through Marc Houle's recent "Bay Of Figs" and these tracks demonstrate the focus on the dancefloor that Minus has showed of late. Further tracks by Loco Dice (the beautiful "Seeing Through Shadows"), Magda, Ambivalent and Pierce all dismiss the notion that the minimal sound hasn't evolved over the years. The accompanying mix CD, Something More, does a splendid job of placing the Minus back catalogue in its correct environment with Pierce's mixing skills allowed the space to shine. Nothing Much is a solid snapshot of Minus' progression and a worthy addition to your music collection.

To buy Nothing Much: A Best Of Minus online click here.

Mute started life just as punk's initial starburst was reconstituting into myriad new hybrids. Originally a conduit for latter-day label impresario Daniel Miller's post-punk alias The Normal and his seminal single "Warm Leatherette" (later covered by Grace Jones, no less), Mute evolved steadily throughout the ensuing '80s, somehow simultaneously maintaining its cutting edge post-industrial credentials while taking gimlet-eyed aim at the sharp end of the singles chart. In that regard at least, this utterly comprehensive, 128-track trawl through the indie imprint's early singles and B-sides (plus rarities) brooks no argument -- its ten (count 'em!) CDs describing a veritable stylistic serpentine that embraces bubbly synth pop as readily as dystopian proto-techno and yowling post-punk catharsis. Thus, mostly forgotten (though once NME-eulogised) acts like Fad Gadget and DAF unpack their austere industrial angst alongside the eager-as-a-puppy electro-pop of Basildon New Romantic chancers-turned-stadium-gods Depeche Mode and the hook-laden sequencer pop of Yazoo.

Props must go to Miller; where others might have capitalised greedily with further lucrative pop acts, he never stopped signing loss leaders (NON or Robert Gorl, anyone?). So while the hits collected here will be naggingly familiar to anyone born before, say, 1975, there are curios a plenty to be unearthed. Liaisons Dangereuses' angular obscurity "Mystere Dans Le Brouillard" and the inscrutably Kraftwerkian Duet Emmo's Or So It Seems emerge from the shadows -- dated but oddly charming epistles from an artier, if less technically accomplished, musical era; while should've-been pop hits like I Start Counting's "Letters To A Friend" shine anew. Elsewhere, the merciless art/metal grind of Einsturzende Neubauten and The Birthday Party's unfettered gothic howls act as uncompromisingly noisy counterweights to the chart candy -- Mute in name only.

To buy Mute Audio Documents 1978-1984 online click here.

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